Firefighter Statistics (2026): 36 Sourced Figures

This page collects figures on US firefighters and the fires they respond to. It covers how many firefighters there are, who they are, how many die or are injured on duty, what is known about cancer, and how many fires occur each year. Every number links to the document that first published it. The main sources are the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the US Fire Administration (USFA), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the CDC and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). For more data pages on other markets, see the StatWharf research directory.

Method

The data window runs from 2020 to 2026. Most figures describe 2024 or 2025. The NFPA fire department profile uses 2020 data, which is the latest edition NFPA publishes. StatWharf used primary sources only. These are government agencies (USFA, BLS, CDC, NIFC, the City of New York), NFPA as the industry body, and IARC as the cancer research agency of the World Health Organization. Statistics aggregators and blogs that re-quote other sources were excluded. Each figure was checked against its source in October 2026. StatWharf dropped each figure that did not appear on its primary source. No value on this page is modeled, estimated or calculated by StatWharf.

Two common questions have no current primary answer. StatWharf found no national agency that publishes the share of firefighters who get cancer or die from it. NFPA publishes counts of career and volunteer firefighters but not a volunteer percentage, and this page does not calculate one.

How many firefighters there are

NFPA estimates the size of the US fire service from its survey of fire departments. Its count includes volunteers. The BLS counts paid jobs only, so its figures are much smaller.

The 676,900 volunteers in 2020 were the lowest number in NFPA’s series. Most volunteers serve small places. NFPA reports that 95% of them serve departments that protect fewer than 25,000 people. Career departments are fewer but larger. Departments that are all-career or mostly career made up 18% of departments and protected 70% of the population. The BLS states that volunteers account for the largest share of firefighters nationwide.

Who firefighters are

Two sources describe the gender of the fire service. NFPA counts all firefighters, including volunteers, from its 2020 survey. The BLS Current Population Survey counts employed people whose main job is firefighting.

Women are more common among volunteers than among career staff. NFPA counts 17,200 female career firefighters (5%) and 72,400 female volunteers (11%). The BLS 2025 averages cover 11 months only, because data was not collected in October 2025 during the federal government shutdown. The FDNY also employs about 4,500 EMTs, paramedics and EMS officers, and has more than 17,000 employees in total.

Firefighter deaths

NFPA and the USFA each count firefighter deaths every year. Their rules differ, so their totals differ. Since 2022, NFPA also counts heart attacks, strokes and other medical deaths within 24 hours of duty. It reports these separately to keep its long-term trend consistent. The latest USFA report found at the check date covers 2024.

NFPA first reported 62 fatalities for 2024. It later added seven deaths after it received more information, which gives the revised 69. Of the 18 deaths within 24 hours of duty in 2025, 14 were volunteer firefighters. Four wildland firefighters also died in 2025.

The USFA counts 2024 deaths by type of firefighter. It reports that 46% were career firefighters, 44% volunteers, 7% wildland firefighters and 3% part-time firefighters. The USFA calls 2024 the second lowest annual count since it began tracking these deaths. Its leading recommendation is to reduce deaths from heart and circulation problems through better screening and fitness.

Firefighter injuries and cancer

NFPA estimates injuries to municipal firefighters from its annual survey of fire departments. NFPA states that a change in how injuries are defined likely contributes to the long-term fall. Cancer evidence comes from IARC and from the CDC registry that studies cancer in firefighters.

Injuries fell 15% from the 63,175 reported in 2023. The fireground accounted for 30% of injuries in 2024, more than any other duty. NFPA also estimates that 16,900 collisions involved fire department emergency vehicles in 2024, with 650 resulting injuries. Strains, sprains and muscular pain were the leading injury type outside the fireground.

IARC found sufficient evidence that firefighting causes mesothelioma and bladder cancer. It found limited evidence for cancers of the colon, prostate and testis, melanoma of the skin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. NIOSH, part of the CDC, runs the registry to study and reduce cancer risk in the fire service.

Fires and fire losses

NFPA estimates all fires that local fire departments respond to. The USFA publishes separate estimates for residential buildings from the National Fire Incident Reporting System. NIFC publishes national wildland fire counts from the National Interagency Coordination Center.

NFPA reports 11,780 civilian fire injuries in 2024. Home fires made up 23% of fires but caused 75% of civilian fire deaths. The USFA estimates 2,890 deaths in residential building fires in 2023. Wildland fires burned 5,131,474 acres in 2025, fewer than the 8,924,884 acres burned in 2024, although the number of fires rose.

What the figures show

Three points stand out. First, the US fire service relies on volunteers. NFPA counts 676,900 volunteers against 364,300 career firefighters. Volunteers were also the largest group among the 83 firefighter deaths in 2025.

Second, the main threats to firefighters are often not flames. Stress or overexertion caused 58% of USFA-counted deaths in 2024. More than 10,000 injuries occurred during training in 2024. IARC classifies the occupation itself as a cause of cancer.

Third, the workload is large and constant. Fire departments responded to a fire every 23 seconds in 2024. Each incident, training session, injury and exposure creates a record for the department.

Where to go next

Fire chiefs and administrators who record incidents, training, inspections and personnel data are able to review the fire department management software comparison. It sets out national incident reporting support, inspection and preplan tools, personnel features and published pricing for each product. It does not name a single best product.

The next update follows three releases: the USFA report on 2025 firefighter fatalities, the NFPA report on 2025 firefighter injuries and the NFPA estimate of 2025 fire losses. Send corrections to any figure to the editorial address below.

Factual corrections are free: editorial@statwharf.com.